Note to new readers: If you read my 1950 story first, you'll notice a difference here in how I describe Edward's perception of Jasper's gift. In this chapter, I have him "seeing" a visual perception of emotions through Jasper's eyes in terms of auras... something I ended up choosing not to do in Tale of Years, because I felt it was giving too much advantage to Edward. Also, when I went on write Tale of Years I decided that Jasper's sensation of emotions was more instinctual: feeling, versus seeing. But I also like this way, so I decided to leave the inconsistency as is.

EPOV

We had been waiting for another two hours when my pocket finally buzzed with an incoming text from Alice.

Bella will wake up in 2 mins, everything looking good. Sorry about the police station thing.

I just shook my head. How did anyone get out of these situations without empaths, telepaths, and clairvoyants? I felt a surge of love for my family. Everyone except Rosalie had quickly warmed up to my Bella. Even Jasper admired her, although he hardly ever spoke to her and kept his distance. I looked over at my brother, thankful for his willingness to share his gift today. In the beginning, when I was being most tempted by Bella's blood, Jasper had wanted to kill her in order to protect the family. Today, a mere few months later, he was working alongside me to save our relationship. It was partly because he felt I had made a mess of things and that I would mangle this on my own, but I was still grateful.

"Thanks, Jasper, for doing this," I said. Jasper smiled as he breathed in my gratitude, and nodded.

"Bella's waking up," he told me. I greedily dove into his mind, watching as he processed her emotions. After years of practice, I was able to follow Jasper's gift as he read the emotions around him, even when he didn't articulate the results in "thought form" for me. He saw the emotional auras of the people around him in terms of color, texture, and magnitude. He was able to draw in the auras and either magnify or alter them at will. I saw myself in the eyes of his gift now, a huge white cloud of love surrounding me as I thought of Bella. He winked at me, knowing what I was doing, and turned his attention back to Bella. As she yawned, we observed a sense of peace slowly growing in volume until it suddenly shifted into a purple, trembling cloud of anxiety. I sighed; Bella was never going to convince Charlie of my innocence this way.

"Don't worry, I'm turning it down now," Jasper said. I watched as the cloud shrunk , contracting around her in her bed, and I caught my breath as bursts of pink light shot through the cloud, illuminating it until it turned a lighter color. I turned to Jasper. "Trust?" I asked tentatively.

He nodded. "And the lightening color is love. I'm not doing it, though. She's always like that around you."

"What makes you think it has anything to do with me?"

He shrugged. "I just know. Every time she sees you walk into a room, this is what I see."

My heart ached as my love for Bella grew even more, if that were possible. I hadn't spent much time observing her through Jasper's mind; he usually gave her a lot of space, and when he was there, I was so focused on her I couldn't be bothered to hear anyone's mind. I decided to do it more in the future, though. Seeing her emotions opened up a whole new world for me, and she was even more beautiful. She was so precious to me, and to think that she felt such love and trust for me… I still had trouble believing it. I certainly couldn't understand it. She knew so much about me – even about my murderous past – and yet she trusted me with her life, even after I had demonstrated how poor a job I was doing at protecting that life.

Edward, Jasper thought with a warning tone, Cut it out. I'm trying to concentrate.

"Sorry," I muttered. Self-deprecation around Jasper was never a good idea.

We waited as Bella got ready for the day, knowing she was applying the makeup according to Alice's instructions. I shifted my attention downstairs, where Charlie was waiting nervously. Jasper hit him again with wave of tranquility, and he relaxed a bit as he saw Bella coming down the stairs, looking thoughtful. He got up and met her near the kitchen window; Jasper and I had a good view of both of them from where we were standing in the woods.

"Hey, sweetheart."

"Morning, Dad. I, um… I think we should talk about the Edward thing."

"We will, in a minute. First I need to explain why I left in such a hurry last night." Bella nodded for him to continue. "I went to the station because I needed to call the county judge's office… I had him issue a restraining order on Edward." I did it for you, Bells; please understand. But even as he spoke the words, Jasper was sending Bella a shot of anger and embarrassment to help boost her reaction.

"You what?!" Her face was red; very convincing. "I told you, he didn't hurt me! How could you do this?"

"You have to admit, it looks pretty bad. Unless you'd like to tell me what really happened." He crossed his arms as he leaned against the kitchen counter, but his eyes were gentle as they flickered over to inspect Bella's skin; he was relieved to see that the burn on her face was already much better. The bruise on her left arm was a sickly yellow color, but the handprint was only partially visible as a faint bruise.

Well done, Alice, thought Jasper proudly. At first Alice was going to completely cover the handprint with skin-color makeup, but then Bella suggested that it should have the appearance of a fading bruise, since it wasn't supposed to be a burn in the first place. After a little experimentation, Alice created a blend of makeup with a slight bluish undertone, and the effect was perfect.

"Yeah, that was a little weird yesterday," muttered Bella. "I'm going to tell you the truth now, if you promise not to get too mad."

"I'm listening."

"First of all, I really did burn myself with the stupid curling iron yesterday morning, and I really did hit my shoulder on the counter when I was running to get the phone. You know me, Dad, human catastrophe magnet."

Charlie smiled sadly as Jasper blanketed him with trust and pity. "I guess neither of those are outside your, uh… specialty. Now, the elbow?"

Bell bit her lip and ducked her head a bit, looking up at him. "Okay, here's the part you're not going to like. We didn't just go on a walk in the woods yesterday… we went hiking up Kamikaze Pass."

Charlie didn't need Jasper's help here. "Bella, I know I've told you how dangerous that place is! Didn't I say you were never to go there?"

Bella winced. "I know, I know. And I wouldn't have, but Edward and I were so glad to see each other again, and we wanted to do something special, and he's been there with his family a dozen times, and I kind of pestered him until he agreed to take me."

"Bella, that place is dangerous! I don't care who you're with!" I can't believe he agreed to take her there. I really thought he was more responsible than that! Doesn't he know how many hikers have gotten hurt on the pass?

We had all agreed that was unrealistic to try and totally erase Charlie's anger. We agreed upon this plan, which would give Charlie a reason to be angry with me in a normal, human-teenage-boyfriend sort of way.

"So, anyway, we were on that part where the path winds around the hill, and it's just a couple feet wide, and … well, I kind of slipped."

"And Edward grabbed your arm to stop you from falling?" I really want to believe you, Bells. But the thumb part wasn't in the right place for that.

"No, he tried to grab my arm, but it was too late for him to get a good grip. I was already falling over the edge, and he only had time to pin my arm up against the side of the hill. I'm fine, though," she said quickly. "While he held my arm there, I was able to swing my foot back up onto the path and he helped me climb up with his other hand. He saved my life, probably."

"Of course he saved your life! He was the one who put it in danger in the first place," Charlie said caustically. I frowned at the truth in his statement, but forced myself to focus on his thoughts. Jasper was hitting him with as much trust and love as he could manage, and Charlie was imagining the scene on the hiking trail. He felt a moment of panic as he pictured Bella slipping on the dusty trail, tumbling over the edge, and me yelling her name as I swung my hand down to catch her. My knuckles were white I pinned her arm as hard as I could against the side of the cliff, reaching with my other hand to catch her other hand as she tried to scramble back up. I could have lost you, Bells! What would I have done? I nodded to Jasper; this was the signal for him to send a fresh wave of guilt over to Charlie. Okay, I guess I royally screwed this one up. I practically accused him of…. Aw, here he was the whole time, saving her life. Unbelievable. She's never going to forgive me for this.

Jasper's features relaxed as I relayed Charlie's thoughts to him. "The suspicion is almost gone," he confirmed.

I let out a huge breath I didn't know I had been holding. Charlie was hugging Bella now. "I'm so sorry, Bells," he whispered. "I thought… it looked like… why didn't you just tell me the truth last night?"

"I was afraid you'd be mad… I'm sorry, Dad. I know we shouldn't have gone up there."

Charlie released her. " I am mad. You knew it was against the rules, but you went anyway. And he should have known better. I'll have to talk to him about that."

Bella's eyes brightened. "So you're lifting the restraining order?"

I should. But not until I talk to him, and it might be nice to have him out of the house for a few more days… "No, he's meeting me at work today for a little talk."

"A what?" Bella wasn't expecting this one. Her acting had been superb thus far, and I prayed she wouldn't get too flustered now.

"I talked to Carlisle this morning. I, uh, had to talk to him about the restraining order." If she ever finds out what I thought about Phoenix, I'll never hear the end of it! "Anyway, Edward wanted to come and explain everything to me, so we're meeting at eleven."

"I'll come too," Bella said hopefully.

"No way. This restraining order might not be such a bad thing, you know. I'll have it lifted… in a few days. You two could use some time apart anyway."

Now Bella really was angry. "Char- Dad, it's not fair to keep us apart, now that you know he didn't do anything wrong!"

"Didn't do anything wrong? Bella, you could have died yesterday! It was not only irresponsible, it was reckless! An experienced hiker like Edward knows the danger on that trail, and he put you in danger!"

Jasper took a step back, surprised at the sudden rise in Charlie's temper. He set his jaw as he absorbed the anger, and I could see him struggling to reduce it.

"Anyway," Charlie continued, "You really should be grounded anyway for going up there. Instead of that, I'm leaving the order in place for the rest of the week… if Edward can show me he understands what a foolish choice he made yesterday."

Bella's face flushed, but she nodded obediently. "Okay, Dad. I'm sure he got the scare of his life anyway. I know I did."

Me too, sweetheart. You'll never know how scared I was… but he was picturing the horrible scene of me fighting with her in the stairwell again. Thankfully, the image swirled and was replaced by the hiking scene. Thank God I was wrong about that.

"So, uh, have a good time with Edward. I'll see you tonight."

Charlie smirked down at her. "No, I'll be back right after we have our little meeting. I'm taking the rest of the week off, kiddo. You are I are going to be spending a lot of time together, since you'll be free. Something we haven't done enough of. Maybe we could even go fishing!"

Bella's face didn't even twitch, but I knew she was thinking the same thing that I was: this was going to be a long week.